Welcome back, Jesus

2:42 PM,
Dec. 6, 2013

Written by

Robert Scheer

Forget, for the moment, that he is the pope, and that Holy Father Francis' apostolic exhortation last week was addressed "to the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful." Even if, like me, you don't fall into one of those categories and also take issue with the Catholic Church's teachings on a number of contested social issues, it is difficult to deny the inherent wisdom and clarity of the pontiff's critique of the modern capitalist economy. No one else has put it as powerfully and succinctly.

It is an appraisal based not on "just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the ...